1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to social media platform access management. More specifically, the present invention relates to use of an intermediary system such as a firewall to protect social network profiles from unauthorized access and to prevent users of a social media platform from using untrusted communication types or communicating with untrusted social media profiles.
2. Description of the Related Art
Private networks are often used by to share data between members of an organization or business without the shared data passing through the public Internet and potentially being access by a person outside of the organization or business. A private network can include e a wired local area network (LAN) or a wireless local area network (WLAN).
Social media platforms are based on media disseminated and sometimes created by users using the Internet. Typically, a user of a social media platform manages one or more profiles, where each profile includes a collection of media shared by the user. Each of the one or more profiles may represent the user, a group that the user represents, or an organization or business that the user represents. Some exemplary social media platforms include, but are not limited to, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Spotify, Apple Music, Reddit, Snapchat, and Pinterest.
As social media platforms have become more popular with consumers, more and more organizations and businesses have begun to create and manage social media profiles to represent the organization or business in order to more readily interact with consumers and fans. Typically, one or more specific organization members or business employees are tasked with managing such a profile, and are given the login credentials (e.g., the username or email used to log in, as well as the password). Granting full access in this way may cause problems for the organization or business, however, if such an organization member or business employee (or ex-member or ex-employee) decides to post negative content maliciously, such as by posting comments publicly disparaging the business' products after the employee is fired.
Similarly, more and more organizations and businesses have begun to encourage organization members and business employees to manage their personal social media profiles with an eye toward promoting the organization or business. However, such organizations or businesses typically have no control over the profiles of such organization members and business employees, and cannot prevent them from connecting their profiles to profiles that may pose a security threat (e.g., profiles associated with malicious hackers), profiles that may pose a financial threat (e.g., profiles of competitor businesses), or profiles that may pose a reputational threat (e.g., profiles of criminals or disreputable persons or groups).
Therefore, there is a need for improved social media a management infrastructure.